For the past year and a half, we have been meeting every Friday night with eight other couples for a social and Bible study. To celebrate our move, and to say goodbye, one of the couples hosted a goodbye party for us. I was so humbled and so moved by all these close friends said to us. I can’t believe that it’s relly time to start saying goodbye to people who mean so much. I can’t help but share the pictures, first of these goodlookin’ guys…

…then of us harried, yet undeniably beautiful wives…

… and finally of our adorable kids! (Can you believe we have this many kids in the basement every week??)

I wonder how long it will take us before we find friends like these again. I’m really going to miss you guys.

Seriously, aside from starting to realize that moving is not as easy as it was when I was a single gal, we are hanging in there. But long goodbyes are tough, and we’ve known now for nearly 6 weeks about our impending relocation. It feels now like everything we do has the aura of “the last time we…” and it wears on you.

And its been almost 2 weeks since I’ve taken a picture of my uber-handsome Cooper. I can’t believe we’ve lost that camera AGAIN!

Our house is a wreck. In preparation for the BIG MOVE we have pulled everything out of the three attic crawl spaces, into the respective adjoining rooms and started the process of save/give away/throw away. Between Casey’s old Kung Fu equipment (body pads, punching bags), my gazillion pairs of dance shoes, theater scripts and bins of maternity clothes/ in-shape clothes and in-between clothes, Kenny’s bins of outgrown clothes and toys, and filing boxes of every scrap of mail that’s entered Casey and my adult lives, you cannot walk through the house without pole vaulting over something. Couple that with the in-laws visiting and just plain old everyday laundry, bill paying and cleaning, and we’ve got a domestic disaster area on our hands.

For a compulsive neat-freak, this is maddening.

Oh, and I can finally say where we are moving! Casey has taken a job just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Quite a change for our Chesapeake Bay family! And funny to think that Kenny and Cooper are going to grow up eating grits, instead of steamed blue crabs. I wonder of they’re going to inherit southern accents??

My sweet little guy turned THREE on Tuesday the 9th. How time flies! We had a big party for him on Sunday, with my parents and my sister’s family, as well as five other families that we are close to. Kenny was in his element: Casey spent about $30 at the dollar store on various bubble sets, and Kenny and the rest of the kids spent most of the two hours here blowing bubbles. There was also fishing and lots of running around, and a huge chocolate cake, decorated with Curious George. Fun for Casey and I, too, as what’s more fun than having all of your friends over for a Sunday cookout??

Our present to Kenny for the big Three was a Radio Flyer scooter, complete with matching Spiderman helmet, knee pads and elbow pads. He raced around the living room in his pjs, ecstatic and exuberant, until we ventured outside on the driveway for a test drive. I think it’s safe to say we hit the jackpot. He has played with it nonstop, albeit mostly in the living room.

On his actual birthday, we “gave him” a plane ride and two nights in a hotel. Yes. I did write that. We got on a plane and spent 48 hours traveling to look for a new house in a new city in a new state, in preparation for a new job and a whole bunch of new changes! Kenny, though he has flown many, many times, actually enjoyed it and knew what was going on for the first time ever, so it was all brand new. He was as good as gold, so excited in the airport and on the plane that it was infectious. His barrage of comments and questions, delivered in a ten decibel stage whisper, were enjoyed by most of the passengers on the plane:

“Mama! We’re on the plane, Mama! How does it fly Mama? Are we going yet, Mama? The plane is moving! Here we go, Mama! Do you have your seatbelt on Mama? I have my seatbelt on! I see the airport! We’re moving, Mama! Here we go! Look, Mama! We’re going! Up in the sky! Look! Clouds! We’re up in the air! When can we watch Curious George? Can we open the computer? Where are my headphones? When are we landing? Can I have a snack?”

Actually, Casey, my patient, sweet, nurturing hubby, sat next to Kenny, so I could nurse Cooper and zone out a little. Cooper was a champ, and didn’t cry once! The rental car was another story (during a full day of house-looking), but he was a trooper, the little noodle. Kenny was more than a trooper, patient and willing to go with the flow. He even survived (with flying colors) dinner at Casey’s new boss’s house.

We are still recovering from the trip, but now it’s really real: we’re moving! It’s not like we haven’t relocated before: we spent Kenny’s first two winters in Scottsdale, AZ, in two different rental houses. But this time it isn’t temporary. We are heading south.

In a funny twist of circumstance, the house we are renting until we find a place to buy is on a lake! So in spite of being landlocked, we will wake up to a water view, and still be able to fish and kayak for at least a few more months.

I can hardly believe it, but I find myself planning Kenny’s THIRD birthday party. He is no longer a baby. He is no longer a toddler. He is an honest to goodness KID. Yikes!

I am somewhat consoled by the fact that there is still another little guy in the house who desperatly needs me every moment of the day…

But seriously, I am a little shell shocked at the reality that my baby is turning three. I had several friends who sent their little ones off to kindergarten this week, and I realize that my turn is not too far off. Kenny misses the “cut-off” with his September birthday, but only by a week, and he is already so smart about so much, I can’t imagine another three years before I send him off into the vast halls of elementary learning. Still, I wonder if there is a way to preserve him exactly as he is for a little while longer. Ok, exactly as he is, minus the 120 questions he asks about everything all day long.

An example (imagine, though, that this tiny example represents a mere 1/100th of the daily conversations in our house):

Me: Oops.

Kenny: Whaddyou say, Mama?

Me: Nothing, honey. I dropped something.

K: Whaddyou drop, Mama?

Me: Nothing, just my phone.

K: Who-r-you calling, Mama?

Me: No one, baby. I was plugging in my phone to charge it.

K: Why are you charging it, Mama? Does it need batteries? I’ll get you a battery!! (And he runs off in the direction of the battery stash in the kitchen.)

Me: Kenny, come back! I don’t need a battery, I just need to plug it in!

K: What, Mama?

Me: Come back up here!

K: I can’t hear you, Mama! I’m getting batteries! (pause. crash. wail.) MAMA! (sound of 2,000 batteries rolling on the hardwood floor) Mama? (sound of chair scrapping on the floor) Mama! I’m hungry! Can I have a snack after you clean up the batteries?

Meanwhile, in Cooper-land… I took him in for his 2 month check up and he is doing great! He’s 13 pounds – I knew he was getting heavy. The doctor has also confirmed the reflux, and gave us a prescription for prevacid, which I have not yet given him. I hate, hate, hate the idea of Cooper being on a daily medication. The doc said that if he’s not in pain, to just let it go, that he would grow out of it by six months, but the truth is, when he doesn’t sleep through the night (which is about half the time), he has a terrible time with the reflux after his 3 am feeding. There have been many nights I can’t lay him back down again. So I think I may have to give in to the drugs for now.

Cooper is also really starting to show his social side. His smile is much more frequent, and giggles are now ready apparent. And the cooing! Oh, so sweet. It melts me. I can even image that we are having conversations. hm. I wonder how much longer before he starts paying Kenny back with 120 questions… ha ha…